Former Waianae Couple Pleads Guilty to Operating Gambling Business and Structuring Over $100,000

HONOLULU—Lloyd Robert Marshall, age 67, and Nitta Mitsuko Marshall, age 65, former Waianae residents, today pled guilty before United States Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren to conspiracy to conduct, operate, finance, supervise, and direct an illegal gambling business involving cockfighting, dice tables, and card games at their Puuhulu Road property in Waianae. The Marshalls also entered guilty pleas to 13 counts of structuring over $132,000 in proceeds during a one-year period from the illegal gambling business to evade certain regulations relating to currency transactions. Under federal law, a Currency Transaction Report must be filed by a financial institution with the Internal Revenue Service in regard to any currency transaction over $10,000. It is illegal to structure transactions with financial institutions in order to avoid this filing requirement.

Florence T. Nakakuni, United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, said that the Marshalls also agreed to forfeit $170,578.75 in cash, representing gambling proceeds which were seized on July 2, 2011, during a search warrant executed on their property, and their interest in real property used as the venue for the illegal gambling activities. According to documents filed in connection with the case, from approximately 2009 to July 2011, the Marshalls agreed to use their property as a site of illegal cockfighting contests and dice and card games. Police observed from 100 to 600 people at these “derbies.” People attending the games paid parking and entrance fees.

The defendants face maximum penalties of five years’ imprisonment for the gambling charges and 10 years’ imprisonment for each of the structuring counts, along with fines totaling up to $250,000 and $500,000 respectively, when they are sentenced on January 28, 2013, before Chief United States District Judge Susan Oki Mollway.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations, and the Honolulu Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Beverly Wee Sameshima is handling the prosecution.